Scarlett Johansson may lead a quiet life, but she’s undoubtedly one of the most accomplished and highest-earning actresses in the world today. Despite her success, she has never let fame get to her head and doesn’t live like an A-list celebrity. She attributes her open-mindedness to her constant rejection early on in her career and advises others to do the same. While she never imagined having another career, she did contemplate trying something else in the industry at times. Her portrayal of Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is iconic, and she has also starred in indie films and on Broadway. This article delves into Scarlett Johansson’s career and net worth.
Scarlett Ingrid Johansson was born on November 22, 1984, in the Manhattan area of New York City. Her father, Karsten Olaf Johansson, is an architect from Copenhagen, Denmark, while her paternal grandfather, Ejner Johansson, was a screenwriter, film director, and art historian, originally from Sweden. She identifies as Jewish and has roots in Poland and Russia from her mother’s side. Melanie Sloan, Scarlett’s mother, is from New York and came from an Ashkenazi Jewish family, with the surname Schlamberg. Scarlett has three siblings, namely an older sister named Vanessa, an older brother named Adrian, and a twin brother named Hunter. Her father’s first marriage produced an older half-brother named Christian. She holds dual citizenship in both the United States and Denmark.
Scarlett Johansson grew up in Greenwich Village, Manhattan and attended PS 41 for her elementary education. Her parents got divorced when she was thirteen, but she found solace in her maternal grandmother, Dorothy Sloan, who was both a bookkeeper and educator. The two were very close, and Scarlett often regarded her grandmother as her best friend. Since a young age, Johansson had a passion for performing and frequently entertained her family with jazz hands and musical theater. Her parents supported her aspirations to become a tap dancer, and she received training in that field. Johansson’s love for acting led her to practice by imitating Judy Garland’s crying scene in Meet Me in St. Louis while looking at herself in the mirror. Though she was initially upset when a talent agent signed her brother rather than her, she ultimately decided to pursue acting. After enrolling at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute, she stopped auditioning for commercials and focused on stage and film performances instead. She made her stage debut in an off-Broadway production of Sophistry alongside Ethan Hawke, where she had two lines. Later, she attended the Professional Children’s School, a private school in Manhattan for aspiring young performers. Despite her experience in the entertainment industry, Johansson considers her upbringing to have been quite ordinary.
Scarlett Johansson’s career began when she was eight years old, starring with Ethan Hawke in the Off-Broadway show Sophistry. She made her cinematic debut in 1994’s North and appeared in the 1995 picture Just Cause. Her breakthrough role came in the coming-of-age drama Manny & Lo in 1996, where she played one of two orphaned sisters who flee. In The Horse Whisperer (1998), Johansson gave a critically acclaimed performance as a teenage girl who had been in a disfiguring accident. Johansson transitioned to adult roles after graduating from Professional Children’s School and receiving a rejection letter from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 2002. With Lost in Translation (2003), she received a BAFTA and Golden Globe nomination and successfully established herself as an adult actress. She went on to star in The Girl with the Pearl Earring (2003), The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The Perfect Score, A Love Song for Bobby Long, and In Good Company (all 2004). In 2005, Johansson debuted in Woody Allen’s critically acclaimed film Match Point and starred in The Island, her first high-profile action film. She continued to diversify her acting abilities with roles in historical drama The Other Boleyn Girl (2008), the love story He’s Just Not That Into You (2009), and touching drama We Bought a Zoo (2011). She made her Broadway debut in A View from the Bridge in 2010 and won the Best Actress Tony award. Johansson is also a singer and released her first album Anywhere I Lay My Head in 2008, followed by the duets album Break Up with Pete Yorn in 2009 and the EP Apart with Yorn in 2018. Alongside her performing career, Johansson portrayed Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She first appeared in Iron Man 2 (2010) and reprised her role in The Avengers (2012), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Black Widow (2021).
Scarlett Johansson has had several romantic relationships throughout her life. She dated Jack Antonoff while studying at PCS from 2001 to 2002. Her co-star in Black Dahlia, Josh Hartnett, was her partner until the end of 2006. Busy schedules caused their breakup. In 2007, Johansson began dating Canadian actor Ryan Reynolds. They got engaged in May 2008 and married on Vancouver Island in September of the same year. Nevertheless, they separated in December 2010 and divorced in July 2011. In November 2012, Scarlett Johansson started dating Romain Dauriac, a Frenchman who ran an advertising business. A year later, they got engaged and split their time between New York City and Paris. Johansson gave birth to their daughter in 2014, and they tied the knot that October in Philipsburg, Montana. However, they separated in the middle of 2016 and finally divorced in September 2017. In May 2017, Scarlett Johansson began dating Colin Jost, co-head writer, and co-host of Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update. Their relationship flourished, and they got engaged in May 2019. They exchanged vows at their New York residence in October 2020, and in August 2021, Johansson gave birth to their son. Both Los Angeles and New York are home to Johansson.
In September 2011, unauthorized persons stole Scarlett Johansson’s diaper photos from her mobile phone and shared them on the internet. She had previously sent the images to her then-spouse, Ryan Reynolds, three years before the incident. The FBI conducted a probe which led to the arrest of the perpetrator who pleaded guilty and received ten years in prison. In 2014, Scarlett Johansson won a $3,400 settlement after suing French publisher JC Lattès for defamatory comments about her relationships in Grégoire Delacourt’s book The First Thing We Look At. Scarlett Johansson criticized the media for promoting an unhealthy body image that encourages women to develop eating disorders. In an editorial published on The Huffington Post, she advocated for a healthy lifestyle. In March 2006, she posed nude with Keira Knightley and fashion designer Tom Ford for the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. However, the photo sparked controversy as some felt it reinforced the notion that women are pressured more often to display their sexuality than men.
With an estimated worth of $165 million, Scarlett Johansson has earned $56 million this year alone. Despite her success as one of the highest-grossing actresses in history, Johansson has revealed that she hasn’t always been among the highest-paid actors, particularly compared to her male counterparts. Johansson acknowledges that the entertainment industry is fickle and political, and that women in all positions struggle for equality. Her resume demonstrates her willingness to take chances, with critically acclaimed independent films alongside superhero movies. Unlike many of her peers, Johansson doesn’t have a social media presence or participate in influencer deals, preserving her privacy and upholding the premium nature of her brand.
Scarlett Johansson bid farewell to her role in Marvel movies after Black Widow, as she expressed in an interview with ComicBook.com in June 2021. She stated that leaving the party while still lively is a great feeling, and although it is bittersweet to say goodbye, if one loves something, they must set it free. However, she recently filed a lawsuit against Disney on July 29, 2021, claiming that they breached her contract by releasing Black Widow simultaneously in theaters and on Disney+. According to Johansson, her contract specified that the film would only debut in theaters initially, and its potential financial rewards primarily relied on its box office success. She further mentioned in legal documents that Disney had refused to renegotiate her contract before Black Widow’s premiere due to their decision to allow a dual release, causing her a personal loss of approximately $50 million.
The representative of Scarlett Johansson has claimed that Disney’s decision to release “Black Widow” on Disney+ was solely to benefit the company and not to consider the profit interests of the actress. They stated that Disney was exploiting the pandemic as a pretext to increase subscribers and stock prices while disregarding the rights of the artists involved in creating their successful films. Disney, however, denied any wrongdoing and expressed disappointment in the lawsuit’s disregard for the global impact of COVID-19. The parties have since settled amicably, with Johansson receiving $40 million, and she will still appear in Disney’s upcoming project, Tower of Terror.
